Preds are poised

Nashville has bevy of picks for deep 2003 NHL Entry Draft

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- The NHL Entry Draft in June is considered the deepest in recent years. For the Nashville Predators, it may be the most important in the 5-year-old franchise's history.

General manager David Poile has stockpiled 14 draft picks for the June 21-22 draft, including eight in the first three rounds. He is looking for quantity and quality to improve the team over the next couple years.

"This is a draft that has to be the best we've ever had," Poile said Wednesday.

Poile and his scouts took a break Wednesday from dissecting and ranking potential draft picks to review some of the top players available in the upcoming draft. The Predators, host of the two-day draft, have the seventh pick overall.

None of the Nashville scouts see a superstar in the waiting, so a trade up in the first round isn't likely.

"Seven may be just as good as (No.) 1 or 2," Poile said. "To move up in the draft, there's going to be a price, a huge price to do that. I'm all for p.r. and publicity, but there has to be a reasonableness to the price."

The NHL scouting service has handed out its final ranking of North American players, a list that includes prospects like Eric Staal, Thomas Vanek, Nathan Horton, Ryan Suter and Dion Phaneuf.

The Predators see as many as 10 players worthy of their top draft pick. But Poile has them almost perfectly positioned to move up in the second or third rounds -- if he chooses.

Nashville has three picks in the second round, including Nos. 35 and 37 overall. The first pick in that round came from a trade last year with Buffalo, and the third selection in that round is a compensatory pick from trading for goalie Ed Belfour, who later signed with Toronto.

Then Nashville has four in the third from three trades.

Poile said he could use those picks to move up, but his scouts keep telling him there's so much talent that they can find good players through the ninth round, in which they have two picks, including the last from the 2002 trade of former captain Tom Fitzgerald to Chicago.

"This could be a defining draft for our organization. I'm certainly hoping it will be," Poile said.

A good draft is defined as picking three players who reach the NHL. Poile thinks they can get five.

"That's what we need to have happen for this franchise," Poile said.

Poile always has talked of building through the draft, a philosophy that has yet to pay off in the franchise's first playoff berth or even a winning record. But he cited the Ottawa Senators, currently in the Eastern Conference finals, as proof of what can happen with patience.

Seventeen of 23 Senators came through the draft, and Poile can see the upcoming draftees potentially joining David Legwand in two seasons.

"That's going to give us the depth we're currently missing," he said.

Notes: Poile said that former assistant coach Paul Gardner has agreed to be a pro scout for the Predators, although he will be moving to Baltimore. He has had approximately 50 phone calls and resumes asking to fill Gardner's job, including former Predator Darren Turcotte and current player Brent Gilchrist. ... The Predators want to fill the Gaylord Entertainment Center for the NHL draft, so tickets to attend are free and available at the arena box office, on the Internet and at locations where Powerade is sold.

 

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